After The Final Rose Has Fallen

by David Ash

There comes a time in life when there are certain things that can keep a man going. That for me, is a woman. Ever since I was very young I always maintained a strong liking for the opposite sex. To me they are a source of hope in a very dark and troubling world. A world where destitution threatens at every doorstep and street corner. One where the bad out weighs the good, and one where the opportunity to turn things around is hard to find if not non-existant entirely. And yet, encountering women always gives me that opportunity to hope in something, and that something is the opportunity, with another person on this long and lonely journey, to share life's burdens, help each other through, and fall madly in love. Something of which, in my opinion at least, can conquer all life's difficulties.
Despite this however, sometimes life don't end up the way that you had hoped. A woman, for me, the being that offers that said opportunity, and that opportunity itself, sometimes aren't available for all people, some for thier whole lives. So, the first poem in this book of poetry is about this being, and this opportunity. Also, conversely, the following poems in this collection are reflections of how a person would come to grow to feel when this lovely being, woman, and this exquisite opportunity, love, fail to reach a person so inclined to love these two aforementioned perfections.
So, this is a collection of poems. The first, hopeful of the hope of being joined to a woman, to me a being of beauty, kindness, compassion, and above all, love. The following poems are sad, which for me, are the result of a person being deprived of such wonderful things; to me a few of the only wonderful things life has to offer. So, laugh, cry, and cry with me as I take you on a journey. Together, if you read on, we'll experience both the joy of woman, hope, and success, which to me, are all intertwined for a man. Because, as they say, behind every great man is a great woman. We will also journey through the thoughts, feelings, and emotions that result from losing said things that, to me, fulfill a person's life in this life, and give satisfaction and meaning to a person. I hope you enjoy, and remember, reguardless which flower you pick, all flower's will wither and fall in due time. Not that I want it that way, but it is a fact, one that I have lived over and over in my lifetime, and not just in reguard to women, success, love and hope.

49 pages, Kindle Edition

First published September 13, 2013

About the author

David Ash is the publisher and poet behind the Haiku for Life series. He first learned about haiku in sixth grade and his undergraduate degree in English Literature from Georgetown University focused on 20th century poets such as e.e. cummings and T.S. Eliot. Ash later earned a Masters in Liturgical Music from Santa Clara University. He has been a clerk, secretary, teleprompter typist, financial paraplanner, proposal writer, newspaper columnist, ad rep, newsletter editor, and art gallery owner. He was also a music and/or liturgy director at various Catholic parishes for 17 years and is still a composer and hymn writer. He is an unabashed punster, and it shows in his haiku. Ash's first book of haiku was published when he was almost the age that Basho was when he died. He lives in Mukilteo. Washington with his wife and son."